Articles

  • the Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences

Article

Case Report

Exp Neurobiol 2015; 24(4): 366-370

Published online December 30, 2015

https://doi.org/10.5607/en.2015.24.4.366

© The Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences

Intracranial Vasospasm without Intracranial Hemorrhage due to Acute Spontaneous Spinal Subdural Hematoma

Jung-Hwan Oh1, Seung-Joo Jwa1, Tae Ki Yang2, Chang Sub Lee2, Kyungmi Oh3 and Ji-Hoon Kang1*

Departments of 1Neurology and 2Neurosurgery, Jeju National University Hospital, Jeju 63241,
3Department of Neurology, Korea University Medical Center, Seoul 02841, Korea

Correspondence to: *To whom correspondence should be addressed.
TEL: 82-64-717-1620, FAX: 82-64-757-8276
e-mail: jhkang@jejunu.ac.kr

Received: October 16, 2015; Revised: November 15, 2015; Accepted: November 24, 2015

Abstract

Spontaneous spinal subdural hematoma (SDH) is very rare. Furthermore, intracranial vasospasm (ICVS) associated with spinal hemorrhage has been very rarely reported. We present an ICVS case without intracranial hemorrhage following SDH. A 41-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with a complaint of severe headache. Multiple intracranial vasospasms were noted on a brain CT angiogram and transfemoral cerebral angiography. However, intracranial hemorrhage was not revealed by brain MRI or CT. On day 3 after admission, weakness of both legs and urinary incontinence developed. Spine MRI showed C7~T6 spinal cord compression due to hyperacute stage of SDH. After hematoma evacuation, her symptoms gradually improved. We suggest that spinal cord evaluation should be considered in patients with headache who have ICVS, although intracranial hemorrhage would not be visible in brain images.

Keywords: Spinal subdural hematoma, Subarachnoid hemorrhage, Intracranial vasospasm, Headache